Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants
by fireexitturnright
Summary: At the beginning of the reaper war John inherited some interesting cargo from Miranda. He didn't know it then, but this cargo would teach him & his crew some very important things. Like how what we are does not define who we are, just as blood does not define family, and love is defined by nothing. James Vega/OC, John Shepard/Joker.


**Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants**

**Epilogue**

___[Author's note: Warning & details. This story is for mature audiences, teens and above. There is violence and sexual situation. I try to keep things in good taste but they still need a warning. This story spans the entire Mass Effect 3 game all the way to the end. So there may be spoilers if you haven't finished it. The primary pairings for this fic are Joker/Mshepard & James/OC, if you have a problem with that please do not read my stories. Also, I use default John Shepard for my stories. So no custom shep, although his personality is what I perceive it to be. with that said, I hope you enjoy my story.] _

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The harsh crunch of metal resonated loudly down the corridor as the soldiers ran the quickest they could to make it to their designated position. Their thick white armor clapping together as their arms swayed in motion with their bodies, hugging assault rifles close to their chest. The fluorescent lights reflected a bright white shine off the visors of their helmets. Everything was white. The tiles of the floor, the wall, the ceiling. Sterile. They could have very well blended into their surroundings had it not been for the black and yellow detailing. The Cerberus logo slapped onto their chest plates. God knows some of them wanted to disappear into the wall. They saw the video feed from the levels above, how those women just ripped their comrades apart, armor and all. The same armor that they were wearing.

The soldiers stopped where two hallways converged into a 'T' shape. Quickly, the engineer set up a barricade with a few stand up shields he had on hand. Taking cover, the group waited patiently. Three metal doors lined each side of the corridor. Science labs filled with classified information none of them would ever see but were expected to protect with their lives. A number of them twitched as they heard a small noise and hugged their assault rifles just a little closer to their chests.

"Remember, we need the girl alive." Their commanding office warned as he switched out his rifle for the pistol on his side. He could see how jumpy they had been, how afraid they were. But if they did somehow manage to kill the enemy, it would in no way be constituted as a victory. This was Cerberus property they were dealing with, after all. And the Illusive man didn't take too kindly to people destroying his things.

A familiar, quiet 'swish' was heard as the second door on the right opened casually. The team braced themselves for action, lifting the barrels of their rifles just above the shields and lining up their sights.

"Hold your fire!" A feminine voice pleaded as white and yellow armored arm emerged from the opening. Startled, one of the soldiers shot off a round by accident and the arm recoiled into the lab.

The CO promptly ripped the soldier's weapon out of his hands and hit his helmet with the butt. Not hard enough to knock him out, but enough to get the point across. "It's alright. You can come out." He called down the hall.

There was a moment of silence as she waited in the doorway, pensively peering around the threshold to see if they were trying to trick her. When she saw the soldiers standing out of cover with their guns lowered she decided to take her chances.

The soldiers went rigid as they watched her limp into the hallway. Her armor was covered in blood, a bullet hole in the shoulder. Around her neck another soldier had slung their arm and rested against her side for support. Their armor was covered with even more blood that the first, there was even a bit a shredded flesh stuck onto her chest plate, covering up the Cerberus logo.

Two soldiers broke from cover as they moved to help their comrades make their way down the hall. They rested them up against a wall out of the line of fire.

"What happened?" The team leader asked a surprisingly concerned tone to his voice.

"They just fucking came at us out of nowhere." The woman replied as she tried to catch her breath, her panting amplified within the helmet. "Sneaky bastards gave us no time. They took our whole squad in a matter of seconds. We used the last of our smoke grenades to escape." She looked over to her comrade and hugged them close to her side.

"Good thinking." The CO nodded. He looked between the two of them and observed their injuries closely. It was obvious they were in no shape for battle. "You two think you can make it down to the shuttle bay? That's where they'll be evacuating casualties. These two little bitches took down a lot more of our guys than we thought." He growled as he looked back down the hall for moment, and then turned back to them.

"No problem, sir." She nodded "Give that dirty cunt Miranda a shot in the gut for me, will ya?" She growled as she readjusted her partner's position at her side.

"Will do. Now get the hell out of here before they catch up with you." He returned to his cover and gripped at his pistol with both hands.

Together the two limped down the corridor and around the corner. As soon as they were a comfortable distance though, the two broke off from one another and began a brisk walk to the elevator.

The supposedly incapacitated soldier located the controls to the lift selected the shuttle bay as their destination as the girl who had been supporting her rested against the elevators back wall and sighed in relief. "That dirty cunt?" She questioned her comrade with a notable accent and a hint of annoyance to her voice "Was that really necessary?"

"They bought it didn't they?" The other woman rubbed at the shoulder she had been supporting her accomplice with. "You know, you're heavier than you look, Miranda."

"And you're much more vulgar than I remember."Miranda passive-aggressively replied as she leaned on the wall next to her.

"Yep, a few months without Mommy Miranda and my whole vocabulary has gone to hell." She chuckled.

"Just like everything else…" Miranda commented somberly.

The elevator stopped and opened its doors to a large shuttle bay mostly filled with injured scientists and soldiers being treated and boarded into Kodiaks. The bay door was open to the outside, a large expanse of mountains standing tall just beyond the metal frame. They could practically taste their freedom. Just few more minutes of this charade and they could be out of this place forever, that is if they weren't outted first.

They hobbled around for a few minutes, trying to avoid the doctors that would insist they take their armor off to treat them. Eventually they came across a shuttle with only a few incapacitated men in the back, most of them sleeping or drugged out of their mind. It was almost too easy to hijack the vessel at that point. They had already fled the facility premises before anyone even noticed.

A soldier in the back quickly came to as he felt the shuttle begin to move. He looked around and noticed that some things were amiss. There were dozens of people being evacuated, why did they only have four men in the back? And why were the two piloting still in full armor, covered in blood. He called out to them, telling them they shouldn't be leaving yet, that they should wait for more people to board.

Miranda sighed as she piloted the vessel toward the mountains. He just had to wake up didn't he? She looked over to her companion sitting in the co-pilots chair and quietly asked her to 'take care of that'.

Without another word the girl stood and moved to the back of the shuttle. She took a seat next to the confused passenger and just looked at him for a moment. Through the visor of her helmet he actually looked pretty cute. Dark tan, light brown eye, short brown hair, a cute little bandage wrapped around his forehead. What a shame. Silently, she removed the helmet to get a better look. He really was a cutie, even when his face went pale and his sleepy eyes went wide with fear as he recognized her face.

This was no Cerberus officer sitting next to him, but the very girl who had put him here in the first place.

"You just _had_ to be a Cerberus agent…" She sighed with an apologetic tone. In a flash she reached up and wrapped a hand around his chin, the other at the back of his skull and, in one fluid motion, broke his neck with a gut-wrenching crack. The body slumped to the floor with a loud thud, but she didn't really seem to notice. The girl simply sat there for a moment, looking at the seat he used to preoccupy with a somber, far away stare. Then she blinked and shook her head, and it was like nothing had happened.

She turned her head to the side and observed the video console built into the wall with a sharp, angry look; As if it had offended her.

The Illusive Man paused the video there, just before she grabbed her helmet and smashed the console. Her icy blue eyes remained fixed on the camera and with the way that she's glaring almost feels like she's looking at him. He smirked as he took another long drag off his cigarette, carefully flicking the ash in the tray to his right.

His, perhaps entirely too large, office was almost utterly shrouded in darkness. Save for the ominous red glow of the giant, dying star stationed outside his window. The bright image on the screen hovering above, cast a sickly blue light over his face, giving his cybernetic eyes a rather menacing glow as they remained stationed upon their quarry.

She was a beautiful specimen. Soft, porcelain skin, pale from a lack of sunlight. Short black hair that curled in just beneath her earlobes. And her eyes….How the Illusive Man loved those eyes. Bright blue balls of angry fire that pierced right into your soul, burning with conviction. Just like a certain someone else he once knew. Unlike other traits, her looks were purely a spontaneous gift of nature. No scientific tampering, just generous genetics. The only things he had allowed to remain untouched.

Despite her innocent face though, many of his soldiers had thought of her as a vicious killer. But The Illusive man knew her to be a rather lovely young woman with a charming personality. Her intellect immeasurable and skills unprecedented, she was a real prodigy that one. His prodigy. Every ounce of her intelligence was entitled to him, and he did not appreciate Miranda trying to take that away.

You would never know that the girl was only a few years old; she already looked and acted like she was in her early twenties. Speaking with purpose and killing with ferocity. After she had escaped the facility recapturing her proved to be an arduous task indeed. But it was necessary; she was a commodity they could not lose.

He moved his attention over to another screen to the right and played another video. This one was taken by a security camera on that shit hole known as Omega. He leaned back in his chair and watched diligently as it showed two women at a store where they sell spare parts. One of them looked up to look the Elcor shop owner in the eyes as she tried to haggle the price of a piece of tech. It was unmistakably her, his prodigy. Her dark hair has grown long, past her shoulders, her bangs shielding her eyes. A testament to the months he's spent searching for her. But it was her. He knew.

The video dated back to just over twelve hours ago. Chances were they were still on Omega, probably already settled in for the night.

The Illusive Man smirked as he moved to type a few key strokes into his computer. Within second a curt military greeting came through to his com.

"General Petrovsky…" He greets the man on the other end of the line.

"Yes, sir."

"Assemble a force…We're taking Omega."


End file.
